US News Roundup: Pittsburgh suspect pleads not guilty; former Goldman bankers charged in 1MDB scam

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Amid Pittsburgh funerals, synagogue suspect pleads not guilty

The man accused of fatally shooting 11 worshipers in a Pittsburgh synagogue during Sabbath prayers pleaded not guilty on Thursday to federal hate crimes charges and other offences as the city's Jewish community buried three more of its dead. Robert Bowers, 46, who had been wounded in a gunfight with police and made his initial court appearance on Monday shackled to a wheelchair, walked into Thursday's proceeding upright and without the need of assistance, wearing a red jumpsuit and a bandage on his left arm.

U.S. charges financier, former Goldman bankers for 1MDB

U.S. prosecutors unveiled criminal charges on Thursday against two former Goldman Sachs bankers and Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho tied to the alleged theft of billions from Malaysian sovereign wealth fund 1MDB. Prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney's Office in Brooklyn announced that Tim Leissner, a former partner for Goldman Sachs in Asia, had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to launder money and conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and agreed to forfeit $43.7 million.

Harvard to defend practices as Asian-American bias trial ends

Harvard University and a group accusing it of discriminating against Asian-American applicants are expected to deliver their closing arguments on Friday in a trial that could have wider implications for the role of race in U.S. college admissions. The trial in federal court in Boston has pitted the Ivy League school against Students for Fair Admissions, or SFFA, which was founded by an anti-affirmative action activist and whose case is backed by the Trump administration.

The U.S. mail bomb suspect faces a pretrial hearing in Miami court

The 56-year-old Florida man accused of mailing 15 pipe bomb packages to high-profile critics of President Donald Trump will appear at a pretrial detention hearing in Miami on Friday morning. Cesar Sayoc, a former male stripper, pizza delivery driver and DJ who lived in a white van festooned with right-wing political images supporting Trump and lambasting his critics, will appear before a federal magistrate.

TV titans Trump, Oprah go head to head on U.S. campaign trail

Two former TV stars and political opposites - media mogul Oprah Winfrey and President Donald Trump - took to the U.S. campaign trail on Thursday, five days before elections that will determine whether Trump's Republicans retain control of Congress. Winfrey appeared in Georgia to back Democrat Stacey Abrams, who is vying to become the United States' first black female governor.

Social media, tech firms use sites to urge U.S. citizens to vote

Criticized by lawmakers and others for being unable or unwilling to stop false and inflammatory information about divisive political issues, social media and tech companies say they are doing more to boost voter turnout for next Tuesday's U.S. congressional elections. Snap Inc, Facebook Inc and other firms will remind users to vote and link to a nonprofit guide for identifying the correct polling place, ballot items and hours.

Tennessee executes double murderer in the electric chair

A 63-year-old convicted double murderer was put to death by electrocution in Tennessee on Thursday after the U.S. Supreme Court turned down his last-minute appeals, state corrections officials said. Edmund Zagorski, who had requested that the state not use lethal injection, was pronounced dead at 7:26 p.m. at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, the Tennessee Department of Correction said in a written statement.

Tenth child dies from a viral outbreak at New Jersey facility

A 10th child died has in a viral outbreak at a rehabilitation center in northern New Jersey, where 27 young patients with compromised immune systems have been confirmed with adenovirus infections, state health officials said. The child had fallen ill prior to Oct. 22, the New Jersey Department of Health said in a statement late on Wednesday. It did not say when the child died at the Wanaque Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation in the town of Haskell.

U.S. ambassador to Russia diagnosed with early-stage cancer: report

U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman has early-stage cancer and is being treated, according to comments he gave to a Utah-based newspaper in an interview published on Thursday. Huntsman, who spoke in Moscow with Deseret News in a series of conversations in August, said at the time he planned to return for treatment to Utah, where he served twice as governor.

U.S. judge shreds main claim in Parmesan cheese labelling lawsuits

A federal judge on Thursday dismissed the central claim in lawsuits accusing five food producers and retailers of deceiving consumers by using "100% Grated Parmesan Cheese" labels to describe products that contained cellulose, an anti-clumping agent made from wood pulp. U.S. District Judge Gary Feinerman in Chicago found a lack of proof that the labels would mislead reasonable consumers into thinking the products were 100 per cent cheese, despite evidence that two linguistics professors and the "vast majority" consumers in a recent survey thought so.